ROELOFFS, Roeloff and Christian Ferdinand MÖLLER.
Cyclus von schiffen aller seefahrenden nationen.
Hamburg, Charles Fuchs, 1839. 1 text volume and 56 loose lithographs in passepartouts. 4to oblong. With 56 lithographic plates (including 50 in colour), plates 47-50 contain several smaller illustrations. The numbering alternates between Roman and Arabic numerals, plates 1-46 are captioned above and below the illustrations in 6 languages. The 6 black-and-white terminal plates (numbered I-VI in Roman numerals) depict rigging and technical drawings. The work includes a lithographic title page and 3 illustrated title designs, one for the cover of the text volume, one serving as the title for the plates issued under passe-partout, and one mounted as the cover title for the accompanying original contemporary folder for the plates. Contemporary half beige cloth with the illustrated title on the front board, the text volume kept in a matching gold-stamped linen folder with the lithographed title mounted on the front board, lithographs in passepartouts. [2] ll., 112 cols.
€ 8,500
First and complete edition of this extensive and finely produced work on ship typology, illustrated with highly decorative tinted and hand-coloured lithographic plates.
Christian Ferdinand Möller, shipbuilder and marine painter, designed and lithographed the magnificent plates, the work was printed and published in Hamburg by Charles Fuchs (1803-1874) in 1839. The accompanying explanatory text, with extensive glossaries of nautical and technical terms, was compiled by Roeloff Roeloffs.
The 56 lithographic plates (50 coloured) present a wide range of European and non-European vessels. The larger plates depict ships of the line, frigates, East Indiamen, brigs, cutters, Greenlanders, galleasses, schooners, yachts, pinks, junks, mistiques, polackers, tartans, milkers, and many others. Warships, merchantmen, and fishing crafts from Western Europe and Scandinavia, Russia, the United States, Greece, Turkey and China are also represented.
Among the most striking subjects are the two steamships: the English Condor and the American New Albany. The Mississippi steamer reflects the rapid development of river navigation in the early 19th century, vessels of comparable size began navigating the Mississippi from about 1815 onwards. The accompanying text notes contemporary speeds of approximately 25 km per hour. The American vessel is shown flying a flag with 13 stars in a circle, perhaps an anachronistic rendering attributable to the colourist.
With two stamps of a former rowing club, one on the title page of the lithographic volume and the other in the upper margin of the title page of the text volume. The bookplate of the Hamburg collector Th. Holtzmann is mounted on the inside front cover of the text volume. The work is partially slightly browned and occasionally minimally foxed. Otherwise in very good condition. Not in Bruzelius; Cat. NHSM; Crone Library; JCB; KVK; Maggs, Nautica; Taylor Coll.; WorldCat.
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